Malawi: Minister Demands Answers After MP's '£24bn Repatriation Bill' Claim Blows Up in Parliament

A row erupted in Malawi's Parliament on Tuesday after a top minister accused a fellow MP of throwing around wildly inflated figures -- and demanded he explain himself.

Leader of the House Jappie Mhango stormed into the chamber questioning claims that a jaw-dropping K24 billion had been splashed on bringing Malawians home from South Africa.

The bombshell figure had been aired not in Parliament, but at a public rally -- allegedly by none other than the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the very body meant to keep government spending in check.

Mhango revealed he'd stumbled on the claim after listening to an audio clip doing the rounds -- and wasted no time getting to the bottom of it.

Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn

"I met the controlling officer of DoDMA yesterday, who informed me that the amount spent on the repatriation of returnees so far is K9 billion," Mhango told stunned MPs.

That's a staggering K15 billion gap between what was claimed at the rally and what the Department of Disaster Management Affairs says it has actually spent.

Now Mhango wants the PAC chairperson hauled over the coals -- demanding he reveal exactly where the K24 billion figure came from, so Parliament can weigh it against DoDMA's official K9 billion tally.

The saga raises awkward questions about whether MPs are throwing numbers around at rallies without checking their facts first -- and just how much taxpayer money has really gone into the mass repatriation effort.

Read the original article on Nyasa Times.